Of Laws and Men

Looking at the called-over list for appeals from Cork Circuit Court, I was startled to see that the two judges assigned to the list are the Limerick duo of Murray C.J. (remember him ?) and Johnson P.. It is a little unusual (only a little) for a member of the Supreme Court to sit as a High Court judge, but I don't remember the Chief Justice doing so before. It is somewhat intimidating for practitioners to have him paired with the President of the High Court.

No doubt, it is completely coincidental that our old friend the negligent publication case is listed (at no.16)for hearing, having been adjourned from the last appeal sessions, which - I now recall - also featured a Supreme Court judge.

I have today added a new page here giving links to firms offering listings of jobs of interest to the Cork law community.

Readers may remember the case of O'Connell v. The Irish Times, reported by me earlier this year.In brief, the newspaper was ordered to pay damages because of negligently reporting, allegedly, that a dead man had been a drug-dealer, thus causing his mother psychological injury.

As I anticipated, the decision was appealed to the High Court, and the appeal was listed for hearing this week as you will, of course already have read about here but has been adjourned to the next Appeal sessions in March 2008.

Interestingly perhaps, the delay is due (so the court was told this morning in my own presence)to difficulties in deciphering transcripts of the original criminal trial, the report of which was allegedly negligent.

I have added to this website a page of material specific to the Cork legal scene, which I hope will be useful to locals and non-locals, lawyers and non-lawyers, alike. It will , however, clearly be most relevant to local lawyers and those with an interest in Cork legal affairs.

The page is here.

At Thurles earlier this afternoon, all passengers on the Dublin-bound train ex-Cork were ordered out to the platform and subjected to a personal search by the police. Searches were performed by plain-clothes officers.

On enquiry, one passenger told that it was a "random search".

I cannot remember a precedent and I cannot imagine that there is a power to do this. It seems a "diabolical liberty" to me.

Anyone suggest a reason that I might be wrong ?

My original belief is that this was NOT random. However, the search was so perfunctory that it was impossible to believe that it was made in the honest belief that there might be something to be found.

Some readers may have seen on BBC 2 television yesterday a programme on the phenomenon of leatherback turtles off our coasts. For those who didn't, and actually perhaps even more for those who did, click here for a great website filling-in some of the details.

These creatures are not only huge (weighing up to a ton - that's the weight of several motor cars !) but are amazing travellers: they more-or-less replicate the old Triangular Route i.e. Ireland-West Africa-Caribbean. They are also awesome - for once the word is definitely apt - divers: ... a dive of 1,280 metres has been recorded.

I have run out of time; you must visit the website.

Perhaps chastened by last week's rebuke, Finbarr Cullen has stayed away from politicians this week. Instead, he protests at a proposal "by the Cork Chamber of Horrors - sorry, Commerce" to drain the south channel of the River Lee in order to construct a light railway:

...the Lee to become a railway track ! The Venice of the South ! Where we sported and played in the green leafy shades, stroke-hauling salmon and catching bile-filled mullet - to disappear in the name of progress ! Not on, boy.

Well, maybe one dissenter could be my old friend - if he will allow me to call him that - Theo Dorgan, to whom Finbarr applies the insulting sobriquet of Great Brain of Cork. That it is intended as an insult is put beyond doubt not only by the context ("recently spotted junketing ..." - another give-away word - " ...to Jerusalem, despite an international boycott") but by the separate reference to "Fintan O'Toole, Ireland's leading intellectual (excluding our own Theo Dorgan, of course)".

Finbarr Cullen seems to hate all political parties; he distributes his raillery indiscriminately, as far as I can so far tell.

However, when he refers to my old friends the Labour Party as having "the backbone of a chocolate eclair", he risks losing this fan.

Yet again, a complete blank is drawn.

When I first started this weekly feature (back in October), it was an attempt to get some attention from News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch, prop.). I assumed that the problem with distribution of a puny weekly supplement to a flagship title would immediately yield to the appropriate dose of attention.

Before that, I had already successfully obtained some attention from the editorial staff by e-mailing the newspaper. Whether resulting from that or not, there was an improvement in the position. This improvement lasted a few weeks only, though.

Six months later, it is a matter of some wonder to me that things have gotten even worse.

I am not sure that there is any point in persisting with this exercise, but I will deal with the issue at least once here.

(For previous posts on this saga, see here and subsequent posts here and here. The series will eventually come to rest here but the link is not yet up at the time of this writing.)

Since "The Cork Examiner" went national, debate on local political issues in Cork has been muted, at least as far as impinging on my consciousness has been concerned. It is true that the Prendevil (© David K.) thing is interminably controversial about everything, but I can't stand it.

My enthusiasm for the freesheet "Inside Cork" - now re-named "The Cork Independent" has been declining since Eddie the Editor Lyons parted company with it, but publishing photographs of my daughter - as has been done twice already this year - tends to re-kindle it, as I have already noted in another context.

But enough of the tiresome paternal pride. My purpose here is to draw attention to the paper's "City Searchlight" column, of which I was only dimly aware last year. I wonder if others will agree with me that the current writer, Finbarr Cullen, has a penchant for making issues come alive.

On January 11, he delivers himself of these bons mots:

• ...glass box builder Owen O'Callaghan
• ... Northside TD, Billy the Skid Kelleher
• ... FF Councillor Michael(Honours) McGrath warned New York Revellers not to mix medication, like Cuprinol, with booze as the combination would contribute to a car accident. Thanks, Cllr Michael, thanks for the advice...Where would we be without them ?

(Yes, that word *is* Cuprinol.)

And, on the following week:

• ...somnolent Government Minister, Michael Ahern
• ...Cork County Council has found the answer [to an allegedly dangerous road]. No, not a new road, not lighting ...not widening nor an alternative route. They've commissioned a STUDY. Yes, a STUDY...'international engineering consultants'(wow!) will tackle the problem say the boffins in County Hall and come up with a solution. In other words ...County Hall dont give a tinkers.

(For the previous episodes, see here and here and here.)

Another bad week, in which I failed to find a single full copy.

This week's special "twist" is that 2 of the 4 outlets visited had no copy of "The Times" at all.

Also notable, but not a new development, is that this week was one of those in which the front page of the newspaper had no reference to a Law Section at all. On checking the website, though, it was clear that one was published.

I wasn't in the city this week

I did look at the copies for sale in one Dublin outlet. These had no supplements of any kind, but this may be a seasonal thing.

The best talk in the world is to be heard in Cork...All speak at once ; but there is both art and method in it. Talk of Haydn's Quartets ! As works of art they take second place to a Cork conversation. Palestrina was a Cork man; there is internal evidence in his music ...the idiom is there: one voice starts, but is almost immediately joined by a second and a third which descant about the first, adding to it, embellishing it, and sometimes even contradicting it,but never interfering with the story. Through all the apparent confusion there is pleasant repetition of the main theme; and all parts enjoy themselves thoroughly

Dreadful result this week. Not a single shop out of three carried a full copy of the newspaper, and none had either the "Public Agenda" or Law supplements !

To be fair, all did have the "Times 2" supplement. This is, I think, a "first", and may be a sign of better things to come.

An unqualified improvement was that in one shop, as soon as I pointed out that the newspaper was being sold incomplete, the lady immediately withdrew all copies from sale. This is definitely a first; even a challenge has not resulted in this action in some outlets.

Hats off then to "J R Porters" at Rory Gallagher Square !

(For history of this saga, see here)

This week's result: one shop with no supplements, one with Times 2 only, and one with Public Agenda/Law (and no Times 2).

I protested at the lack of Times 2 in the latter establishment; I was told to take it or leave it. I took it.

Then, over lunch, I read my Law supplement and find no cartoon ! Again ! And no "Lawyer of the Week.

Sigh.

The good news is that none of the paper-shops that I visited this morning had incomplete copies of the newspaper.

The bad news is that this is because they had no copies of it at all.